Other books that might interest you

• 

  Update Liberalism - Liberal...

  Ralf Fücks, Rainald Manthe

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  »Update Liberalism« takes a self-critical look at the crises of liberalism and gives liberal answers the challenges of the 21st century.

  Show book

• 

  The Intimacy of Power: An...

  Alun Evans

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes in the corridors of power during a major crisis or after a ministerial reshuffle? How do new government ministers get to grips with their portfolios and priorities? Who guides and supports them? And why, sometimes – during events such as 'Partygate' – do things go wrong?
  In this meticulously researched book, former senior civil servant Alun Evans lifts the lid on a vital but little-known cog in the machinery of government: private office and the private secretaries who work within it.
  Private secretaries exercise huge influence, and yet most of us have never heard of them. They are the ones who manage the flow of work, who whisper quietly in ministers' ears and who have been Prime Ministers' closest, most trusted and most discreet confidants. At critical moments in our national history – from the Falklands War to the Westland affair, from Black Wednesday to the 2008 financial crash, from New Labour to the coalition government – they have been central but hidden players.
  With exceptional access to former Prime Ministers and decision-makers, Evans explores what private office is and why it matters to British democracy. He argues that following the egregious constitutional breaches of Boris Johnson's premiership, private office must once again be taken seriously so it can return to being the independent junction box of government and a vital part of the British constitution.

  Show book

• 

  The Isolated Presidency

  Jordan T. Cash

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  How powerful is the President of the United States? For many scholars, this is a question that can be answered only by considering factors outside the office itself, such as the president's popularity, personal clout, political talents, or institutional relationships. 
   
   
   
  In The Isolated Presidency, Jordan T. Cash reframes this question to instead ask what authority is available to all presidents. Drawing on the Constitution itself, Cash argues that the presidency possesses an internal logic derived from its structure, duties, and powers which not only grants the president a unique institutional perspective, but also provides the president with considerable agency and discretion in pursuing agendas. 
   
   
   
  To gain a clear view of how the Constitution creates a baseline of authority that is available to all presidents, Cash examines the "isolated presidents"—presidents who were unelected, faced divided government, and were opposed by major factions of their own political parties. Stripped of all external supports, these presidents were left with nothing but their constitutional authority to rely on. Through three case studies of isolated presidents, Cash illustrates how the Constitution creates an empowering logic within the presidency which orients presidential behavior and grants every president significant power and agency.

  Show book

• 

  Settler Colonialism - An...

  Sai Englert

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  From the Palestinian struggle against Israeli Apartheid, to First Nations' mass campaigns against pipeline construction in North America, Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of some of the crucial struggles of our age. Rich with their distinct histories and cultures, they are connected by the shared enemy they face: settler colonialism. 
   
   
   
  In this introduction to the subject, Sai Englert highlights the ways in which settler colonialism has and continues to shape our global economic and political order. From the rapacious accumulation of resources, land, and labor, through Indigenous dispossession and genocide, to the development of racism as a form of social control, settler colonialism is deeply connected to many of today's social ills. 
   
   
   
  To understand settler colonialism as an ongoing process, is therefore also to start engaging with contemporary social movements and solidarity campaigns differently. It is to start seeing how distinct struggles for justice and liberation are intertwined.

  Show book

• 

  The Myth of Left and Right - How...

  Verlan Lewis, Hyrum Lewis

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

  A groundbreaking argument that the political spectrum today is inadequate to twenty-first-century America and a major source of the confusion and hostility that characterize contemporary political discourse. 
   
   
   
  As American politics descends into a battle of anger and hostility between two groups called "left" and "right," people increasingly ask: What is the essential difference between these two ideological groups? In The Myth of Left and Right, Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis provide the surprising answer: nothing. As the authors argue, there is no enduring philosophy, disposition, or essence uniting the various positions associated with the liberal and conservative ideologies of today. Far from being an eternal dividing line of American politics, the political spectrum came to the United States in the 1920s and, since then, left and right have evolved in so many unpredictable and even contradictory ways that there is currently nothing other than tribal loyalty holding together the many disparate positions that fly under the banners of "liberal" and "conservative." Cutting against the grain of most scholarship on polarization in America, this book shows why the idea that the political spectrum measures deeply held worldviews is the central political myth of our time and a major cause of the confusion and vitriol that characterize public discourse.

  Show book

• 

  Money in One Lesson - How it...

  Gavin Jackson

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  You Spend It. You Save It. You Never Have Enough of It. But how does money actually work?Understanding cash, currencies and the financial system is vital for making sense of what is going on in our world, especially now. Since the 2008 financial crisis, money has rarely been out of the headlines. Central banks have launched extraordinary policies, like quantitative easing or negative interest rates. New means of payment, like Bitcoin and Apple Pay, are changing how we interact with money and how governments and corporations keep track of our spending. Radical politicians in the US and UK are urging us to transform our financial system and make it the servant of social justice. And yet, if you stopped for a moment and asked yourself whether you really understand how it works, would you honestly be able to say 'yes'?In Money in One Lesson, Gavin Jackson, a lead writer for the Financial Times, specialising in economics, business and public policy, answers the most important questions to clarify for the reader what money is and how it shapes our societies. With brilliant storytelling, Jackson  provides a basic understanding of the most important element of our everyday lives. Drawing on stories like the 1970s Irish Banking Strike to show what money actually is, and the Great Inflation of West Africa's cowrie shell money to explain how it keeps its value, Money in One Lesson demystifies the world of finance and explains how societies, both past and present, are forever entwined with monetary matters.

  Show book